The foreign secretaryship was offered to Canning; but he, being comparatively poor, preferred the Lisbon embassy, on the large salary of £14,000.

Twice he became secretary to his patron (once in 1667with an official secretaryship in 1672, when Shaftesbury became Lord Chancellorand again in 1679, when he became President of the Council), but both times he lost his post on his friend's fall.